A semiconductor device in which an IGBT and a MOSFET are connected in parallel and used as switching elements has been known, as disclosed in a patent literature 1. In the semiconductor device, one of the IGBT and the MOSFET is arranged adjacent to a control circuit, and the other of the IGBT and the MOSFET is arranged further from the control circuit. An element A arranged adjacent to the control circuit receives a gate control signal from the control circuit and provides the gate control signal to an element B arranged further from the control circuit.
In such a configuration, when the gate control signal is applied to each of the elements, the element A, which has a shorter transmission distance of the gate control signal, is turned on first, and the element B, which has a longer transmission distance of the gate control signal, is turned on subsequent to the element A. For example, it is assumed that the element A, which is arranged adjacent to the control circuit, is an RC-IGBT (reverse conducting IGBT), and the element B is a MOSFET. When the elements A, B are turned off, the MOSFET is turned off, prior to the RC-IGBT, through a diode that is reverse-connected to the IGBT. Therefore, the MOSFET needs not to have a large rated current.